"Since Gerald French taught the workshop here, I've used TIR in my private psychiatric practice for about a year. Does the promise of the accounts I've read on [Charles Figley's] Traumatic-Stress mailing list and on the TIR website live up to expectations? Overall, I'd have to say 'yes'. I've had outcomes which I cannot describe as other than brilliant. I've had patients with a history of little apparent benefit from years of psychotherapy, in whom TIR sessions over several months led to major changes in their level of functioning and quality of life experience. I've found TIR a useful adjunct to other psychotherapies, with its power to effectively resolve painful memories. I strongly recommend TIR as a useful new strategy to add to one's therapeutic armamentarium."

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
Developed by Gerald French, MA, MACP, CTS, and psychiatrist Frank Gerbode, this
4-day intensive workshop teaches Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR), a brief, exposure-based, highly directive, yet wholly client-centered procedure intended to eliminate permanently the negative sequelae of past trauma. Its use involves the therapist/"facilitator" directing a client/"viewer" through repeated reviews of a traumatic memory under conditions designed to enhance safety, minimize distractions, and enable transformative change and evolution in perception and cognition to occur.
In its simplest form, called 'Basic TIR', the approach enables clients to address specific traumata that they wish to resolve. Basic TIR is capable of fully eliminating the symptoms of PTSD.
A somewhat more complex variant also taught in the workshop - Thematic TIR - gives therapists a tool able to resolve a broad array of client symptoms and complaints from a range of diagnostic categories including adjustment disorders, acute stress disorder, agoraphobia, bereavement, dysthymic disorder, major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, somatization disorder, sexual abuse, and phobias.
A lighter procedure than TIR is also taught. Called "Unblocking", it is relatively easy to teach and administer, and its use by participants on the second day of the Workshop provides them with important practice in applying the communication exercises and "Rules of Facilitation" vital to effective use of the more robust TIR technique. Though not TIR, Unblocking is a powerful tool suitable for addressing many client complaints which, though significant, fall short of the level of trauma.

Note: This course is now also being offered by the International Traumatology Institute (ITI), founded by Professor Charles Figley, and fulfills the participant's requirements to meet ITI's comprehensive training in one of the approved treatment approaches, which also include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

TARGET AUDIENCE (WHO SHOULD ATTEND THE TIR WORKSHOP):

Mental health professionals including psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, mental health counselors and marriage and family therapists

Clergy, chaplains, veterans vocational consultants, rape counselors, professionals in the field of grief and death as well as other qualified lay practitioners

Although Traumatic Incident Reduction is not meant to be a first response treatment, the skills learned in the TIR workshop can be extremely useful for CISD debriefers, direct care personnel including emergency managers, fire and police personnel, victims' advocates, and first responders to emergencies and disasters.
(Read what one TIR workshop graduate writes about the usefulness of the course while he was working as a volunteer with the Green Cross Projects in New York City immediately after the 9/11 disaster).

PROGRAM GOALS & OBJECTIVES:
By the end of the Workshop, participants should be able to:

Comprehend the nature and implications of triggering and destimulation

Comprehend the mechanics of a conditioned response chain as they apply to sequences of linked traumata - as in PTSD - and to the use of TIR

Distinguish between primary and secondary traumatic incidents

Describe the procedural logic of both Basic and Thematic TIR

State the TIR session protocols and prerequisites

Make proper and effective use of the Unblocking procedure

recognize and act correctly on decision points in the TIR procedure

Correctly identify the proper end point of any TIR procedure

Use TIR successfully in the rapid resolution of their clients' trauma-based conditions

CONTINUING EDUCATION (CE) CREDITS:
As co-sponsored by the Traumatic Incident Reduction Association (TIRA), this program provides 28 hours of professional continuing education credit.
Provider Approval: TIRA is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to offer continuing education for psychologists, and by the Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists (ATSS) to offer CE credits towards certification or re-certification by the International Certification Board of Trauma Counseling. The Association maintains responsibility for the program.
Participants in all specialties will be provided with a certificate for this workshop upon completion of attendance and skill demonstration requirements. This certificate may be used to secure CE credits from participants' respective licensure boards and/or professional associations.

"It's hard to avoid superlatives over this workshop. The four days were perfectly structured, with clear content. I found what I was taught to be totally applicable to the population I work with. The instructors [French & Malnati] were a superb team; and I would unquestionably recommend the workshop."

"One of the best trainings I have ever attended. [TIR] works, and after this training, I feel prepared to use it.... Learned many new skills. If I had been trained in TIR when I worked with crime victims and witnesses, I would never have left that field."

Laura K. DeCorte, LCSW

"...[TIR] works, and after this training, I feel prepared to use it ..."

"The results I have obtained... with this innovative therapy are nothing short of miraculous..."

"... More than worth every bit of time and expenseof traveling to America for the training."

"In the early 90's, my practice involved 70 hours/week of face-to-face therapy in which the number of my clients/patients with trauma related matters was growing alarmingly. Through increasing medical referrals, my practice was progressively becoming unmanageable, and I began to seek more efficient ways of dealing with trauma. By chance, I came across an article written by Dr. Robert Moore of Florida, extolling the virtues of a new approach to resolving trauma known as Traumatic
Incident Reduction (TIR). I went to Menlo Park in 1994 to train at Moore's recommendation with Gerald French, the most experienced trainer in and - along with Frank Gerbode, MD, and others - one of the developers of this new method.

The results I have obtained since returning to Australia with this innovative therapy are nothing short of miraculous. TIR has done nothing to reduce my workload, but it has increased my efficiency enormously. My trauma-related patients now number something like 45/week, up from the 20 or so that I was seeing at the time I went to California, and at the same time TIR has, in fact, enabled me to produce better, faster, and much more thorough results in dealing with trauma and related matters
than have any other techniques at my disposal. Quite fantastic, really. More than worth every bit of time and expense of traveling to America for the training."

Alex D. Frater, CTS
Certified Trauma Specialist
Sydney, Australia

"Gerald French is a superb teacher, and took us through the process with patience, care, and wisdom. TIR is a powerful tool and provided a rich experience, both in facilitation and as a reviewer of my own [issue]."

" ... Gerald French is a superb teacher ...
... TIR is a powerful tool and provided a rich experience ...."

"I have found TIR to be an effective and simply elegant intervention - one that gets results ...
... I am unable In good conscience to have [interns] work here without
their first being trained in TIR."

"I am a therapist at The Greenville Sexual Trauma Center in Greenville, South Carolina. I work predominantly with women 18 years and older who are either adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse or survivors of assault in adulthood. Most can be diagnosed with PTSD. Those who cannot have many of the symptoms.
I had been introduced to Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) some time earlier but had not received training. Within days of beginning work with this population, I determined that I must get trained in TIR as quickly as possible. Within a month I began my training. I have found TIR to be an effective and simply elegant intervention - one that gets results. It has become the primary intervention I employ in my work. At the end of treatment I always have my clients write about their experience. Each one mentions TIR as having been instrumental in her recovery.
I have interns who want to work under my supervision at the agency. At this point, I am unable In good conscience to have them work here without their first being trained in TIR."

Joyce Callis, LMFT
Greenville, South Carolina

.

I have been doing TIR treatments for the last two years, since I was trained by Gerald French. I employ it on a regular basis, and I find it very, very useful. Although I'm also trained in EMDR (as well as TFT), I find TIR more user friendly, especially when people need to understand what happened to them and why. The protocol is easy and simple, and people take advantage of this approach. TIR permits patients to achieve stable relief from their suffering, to arrive
at useful insights, and to leave the past in the past."

"... TIR permits patients to achieve stable relief from their suffering, to arrive
at useful insights, and to leave the past in the past."

"This was a powerful workshop from my professional and personal perspective.
I have already used this approach with several severe PTSD vets, and have seen major changes in their lives..."
"... It was a revelation ..."

"This was a powerful workshop from my professional and personal perspective. I have already used this approach with several severe PTSD vets, and have seen major changes in their lives. The components of TIR are not new, are well-validated in research, and practiced by clinicians everywhere daily. TIR has taken what we know as scientists that works, and provided us with a method to apply this knowledge systematically.
It is a combination of Rogerian therapy and imaginal exposure therapy that is well-supported in the field. The beauty of it is that it is a self-directed flooding technique that is well-tolerated by Vietnam vets with authority problems.
I was burned out. I'd been the Team Leader of a Vet Center in Alaska for 8 years! I was seeing lots of vets with PTSD and I was telling them what they should do. I was facing a tidal wave, and bracing myself for it. Then I completed the four day Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) Workshop given by Gerald French. It was a revelation. Empowerment to the veteran!"

Ken Green, PhD
Vet Center Team Leader
Fairbanks, Alaska

"This feels like the risen Atlantis of PTSD work, and far, far exceeds other subject-related workshops I've attended. Also, the techniques offered are applicable to a
number of other problems presented in psychotherapy. Gerald French both delights and teaches, which is to say, his workshop can be experienced as a work of art."

"I've used TIR in my private psychiatric practice for about a year. I've had outcomes which I cannot describe as other than brilliant ...
I strongly recommend TIR..."

"Since Gerald French taught the workshop here, I've used TIR in my private psychiatric practice for about a year. I've had outcomes which I cannot describe as other than brilliant. I've had patients with a history of little apparent benefit from years of psychotherapy, in whom TIR sessions ...
led to major changes in their level of functioning and quality of life experience.
I've found TIR a useful adjunct to other psychotherapies, with its power to effectively resolve painful memories.... I strongly recommend TIR as a useful new strategy to add to one's therapeutic armamentarium.

"TIR has been invaluable. We have been amazed at the successes we have
had with it. Re-Entry is using TIR with both veterans and spouses, and ninety percent of the clients we have used it with have experienced an overwhelming sense of relief."

"... ninety percent of the clients we have used it with have experienced an overwhelming sense of relief."

"... I've been to a lot of trainings
in my life, but I've never invested four days which were worth so much to me ..."

" I wanted to thank you again, Gerald. I can finally look suffering people in the eye and tell them that I know something we can try that stands a good chance of liberating them from their suffering. I've been to a lot of trainings in my life, but I've never invested four days which were worth so much to me as that basic TIR class with you."

"Great balance of material, content, and methods. This was the most informative and well-presented workshop I have ever attended. One of the 'practice' sessions I did was easily the single most productive 'therapy' hour I ever received."

Father Sean O'Laoire, PhD
San Francisco, California

" ... This was the most informative and well-presented workshop I have ever attended ..."